[Discussion] The Middle East in Crisis

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rocket strike Saturday at a soccer field killed at least 11 children and teens, Israeli authorities said, in the deadliest strike on an Israeli target along the country’s northern border since the fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah began. It raised fears of a broader regional war.

Israel blamed Hezbollah for the strike in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, but Hezbollah rushed to deny any role. Israel’s military called it a “very serious” event and said it would act accordingly.

“Hezbollah fired a rocket at children playing soccer in northern Israel. It then lied and claimed they did not carry out the attack,” said the military’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari. He called it the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that sparked the war in Gaza. He said 20 others were wounded.

HBO will release the full episode on Thursday, August 1, but, for now, here's a bit of what Oliver spoke about, highlighting the division of legal rights in the West Bank.

The Biden administration thinks the scenario of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah is "exaggerated," White House spokesperson John Kirby said in a briefing with reporters on Monday.

Why it matters: The White House knows Israel is going to conduct a significant response against Hezbollah, but is trying to contain the situation as much as possible, U.S. officials said.

Kirby's comment suggests the administration is trying to tone down some of the public rhetoric around the situation on the Israeli-Lebanese border, while it quietly works behind the scenes to prevent a major escalation.

Prederick wrote:

He calls it a genocide in this one, which matters a lot for some.

Would not be surprised in the least if the full episode never sees the light of day.

Rat Boy wrote:

Prederick wrote:

He calls it a genocide in this one, which matters a lot for some.

Would not be surprised in the least if the full episode never sees the light of day.

I mean, it's been up on Max since it aired - it's just the free version of it on Youtube that's not up yet.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said “it may be just and moral” to starve 2 million Gaza residents until Israeli hostages are returned, but “no one in the world would let us.”

A prominent member of the progressive “Squad” in Congress, Cori Bush, has lost her Democratic primary in St Louis after pro-Israel pressure groups spent millions of dollars to unseat her over criticisms of Israel’s war on Gaza.

St Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell defeated Missouri’s first Black female member of Congress with about 51% of the vote. Bush took about 46%.

Bell’s win marks a second major victory for the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) after it played a leading role in unseating New York congressman Jamaal Bowman, another progressive Democrat who criticised the scale of Palestinian civilians deaths in Gaza, in a June primary.

Aipac pumped $8.5m into the race in Missouri’s first congressional district to support Bell through its campaign funding arm, the United Democracy Project (UDP), after Bush angered some pro-Israel groups as one of the first members of Congress to call for a ceasefire after the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel.

Much of the UDP’s money comes from billionaires who fund hardline pro-Israel causes and Republicans in other races, including some who have given to Donald Trump’s campaign.

Bush condemned Hamas for the killing of 1,139 people, mostly Israelis, and for abducting hundreds of others in October. But she also infuriated some Jewish and pro-Israel groups by describing Israel’s subsequent attack on Gaza and large scale killing of civilians as “collective punishment against Palestinians” and a war crime.

During the campaign, the UDP flooded St Louis with advertising hostile to Bush – although, as in other congressional races targeted by pro-Israel groups, it rarely mentioned the war on Gaza that has claimed nearly 40,000 Palestinian lives, mostly civilians, or her call for a ceasefire.

Instead, the campaign focused on Bush’s voting record in Congress, particularly her failure to support Joe Biden’s trillion-dollar infrastructure bill in 2021 and her support for the “defund the police” campaign. Bush struggled to get her message across that the UDP is misrepresenting both situations.

The UDP accounted for more than half of all the money spent on the race outside the campaigns themselves.

Bell has denied being recruited by pro-Israel groups to run against Bush, but suspicion lingered after he abandoned a challenge for the US Senate and entered the congressional race not long after Jewish organisations in St Louis began to seek a candidate to take on Bush after accusing her of “intentionally fuelling antisemitism”.

Bell is expected to win what is one of the safest Democratic congressional seats in November’s general election.

I guarantee the second the Harris-Walz ticket has to take a position all those good feelings from the past couple of weeks are going to fly right out the window. Biden's position is what was really the beginning of the end of his administration and somebody's probably already figuring out a war crime that rhyme's with Harris' first name.

At first it's hard to recognize them. They're usually wearing Israeli army uniforms, many of them are in their 20s, and they're always with Israeli soldiers of various ranks.
But if you look more closely, you see that most of them are wearing sneakers, not army boots. And their hands are cuffed behind their backs and their faces are full of fear. The soldiers call each of them a shawish, an obscure Arabic word of Turkish origin meaning sergeant.
Random Palestinians have been used by Israeli army units in the Gaza Strip for one purpose: to serve as human shields for soldiers during operations. "Our lives are more important than their lives," soldiers were told.